As I was making my list of devices and chargers to bring on vacation last week, I realized that I was going to have to get something that could easily charge my iPhone 5 on the go. I’m a hardcore mobile Internet user and the battery life has never met my needs, especially on vacation, where it’s often my most used gadget. I started off by looking at standalone power packs like the Mophie Powerstation, which we’ve reviewed before. I was intrigued by those type of devices because they could charge more than one device, whereas a dedicated iPhone 5 battery case could solely charge the phone and nothing else. The standalone battery packs also offered a lot more power than a case, especially when you compare the prices of the two.

Battery cases, however, are much more convenient than power packs. Just put your phone in the case and anywhere you go, you have the ability to charge it. In the end, the ease of use and simplicity of battery cases was the deciding factor for me. After much research and reading our own reviews of the Mophie Juice Pack and Otterbox Defender cases, I ended up going with the Lenmar Meridian case for the iPhone 5. expand full story